


Some Sort of Team

by AreYouReady



Category: Death Note, Death Note & Related Fandoms
Genre: All Our Mains Are Supervillains, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, DN Prompts: Superpowers, Gen, If There Is It'll Be Beyond/Light Because I Am Ultimate Garbage Lord, Interesting Things Ensue, Mind Reading, Non-binary character, There Probably Isn't Going To Be Much Romantic Shipping, They Have All Been Caught And Forced To Work For Wammy's House, wammy's house
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 19:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4448117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreYouReady/pseuds/AreYouReady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Going on some mission for the House was not on Beyond's list of preferable options, but if it was a choice between that and going back to zer cell… Ze’d already been collaborating for years, for the sake of certain perks. But when ze was just using zer power to work on cases or check people for truthfulness or what have you, ze could kid zemself that ze was doing Misora a favor, and that was it. Despite the fact that ze was a prisoner of Wammy’s House and she was their agent, ze almost considered Misora a friend.... But now ze had to take orders from some Wammy’s boss, and that was just humiliating."</p><p>The Wammy's House needs a job done. They need it kept as secret as possible. And they have thousands of powered prisoners at their disposal. What could go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some Sort of Team

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for this was: "Suicide Squad AU! ft. Beyond Birthday, the Kira Squad (Light, Takada, Mikami, Misa), possible Mello cameo, all teaming up reluctantly as asked to take on the dangerous, dark jobs the heroes can’t handle!" submitted by analystproductions on tumblr.  
> Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a comics ignoramus, so it's more _inspired by_ the prompt than actually following it, since I don't know too much about Suicide Squad. 
> 
> I would also like to warn for what feels like misgendering. I headcanon that Beyond Birthday is non-binary, and use ze/zer/zem pronouns in zer internal monologue. Beyond is not picky about pronouns, and later in the story we will meet characters who Beyond currently considers or previously considered zer friends, and therefore know and respect zer gender, and these characters will refer to zem with a variety of different pronouns, including she/her, they/them, and ne/nem. However, within the first chapter, all non-Beyond characters refer to zem with he/him pronouns, which can feel like misgendering.

It was hard to strike a comfortably, naturally relaxed and authoritative pose with zer hands cuffed behind zer back and the handcuffs themselves chained to the back of zer chair, but Beyond tried zer best, leaning back, crossing zer legs ankle to knee, and cocking zer head. Ze was the first in the big gray briefing room, and ze wanted to demonstrate to the other prisoners, soon to be roughly shoved through the door and have it slammed behind them, that ze was not to be fucked with. Ze shot a half-hearted glare at the massive, dormant screen taking up most of the front wall of the room, and a more aggressive one at the cameras staring zem down from all the corners.

Going on some mission for the House was not on zer list of preferable options, but if it was a choice between that and going back to zer cell… Ze’d already been collaborating for years, for the sake of certain perks. But when ze was just using zer power to work on cases or check people for truthfulness or what have you, ze could kid zemself that ze was doing Misora a favor, and that was it. Despite the fact that ze was a prisoner of Wammy’s House and she was their agent, ze almost considered Misora a friend. She brought zem updates on how L was doing, and they chatted about her fiancé (Beyond consistently reminded her that she could do so much better, but Misora never seemed to heed zem). So ze never minded helping her out, even if that meant helping the House. But now ze had to take orders from some Wammy’s boss, and that was just humiliating.

Still, it would be good to be free, even if the freedom was illusory. Beyond cracked zer neck, and stretched as best ze could, cuffed as ze was. Ze had only just begun to wonder where the others were when the door opened and a tiny blonde girl was dragged through. Ze almost laughed; Ze’d never seen anyone who was quite as much the picture of spoiled pissy-ness, save perhaps for L on a few memorable occasions. Though the bright strands of powerful emotions floating around her head forced zem to feel at least a touch of sympathy.

A second look at her gave zem a few more details: her hair was dyed, and its natural dark brown showed for three inches at the roots. She was of Japanese descent. She had a very disorganized mind. She wore a collar around her neck, a power suppressant. She hated one of her guards in particular, and blamed him for some event that Beyond couldn’t quite catch a glimpse of. Most importantly, one of her nails was slightly longer than the others: A weapon? A lockpick? Or perhaps a coincidence, but Beyond decided to have this girl on zer side, just to be safe. Even if she did look like a bit of a mess, and a brat to boot.

Her name was Misa Amane, and ze was pretty sure ze’d seen it before. Though only when it flickered above her head, replaced for no more than a fifth of a second by _Dengeki,_ the Japanese word for an electric shock, did ze remember. Dengeki had been the name of one of a duo of female supervillains, the other one being _Doku,_ or Poison. More precisely, Dengeki had been Doku’s protégé, and had not been a villain more than a year when the seven-year-hardened criminal Doku left her at the mercy of the authorities to save her own skin. When Dengeki had been unmasked to reveal the rising popstar Misa Amane, there had been public outcry. There had been yet more when Amane had given a heartrending story about falling in love with Doku, and being horrendously manipulated by her, forced to do awful things. But despite all that, Amane had refused to give up Doku’s identity, so, bad publicity or not, she’d been sentenced to the full term her crimes deserved: life at the House.

“So, tell me, Dengeki-san,” B began in Japanese, (which ze had been getting far better at since zer stay in the correctional part of Wammy’s; zer interactions with Misora took place in about a fifty-fifty mix of Japanese and English, since she was bilingual, and Beyond knew more languages than ze had fingers), “What, exactly, do you know about this project?”

The thread of bright green confusion ze’d seen twirling around Amane’s ear broadened to a ribbon over an inch thick, and practically lashed at zem. It took sincere effort to keep from flinching.

“What project?” she asked, in a voice that was so high ze could feel a headache coming on.                        

“So nothing,” ze concluded. Ze allowed zer mouth to twist in mild disappointment.

“I’m guessing you know what we’re doing here,” she narrowed her eyes at zem, and suddenly, a _lot_ more of her surface thoughts and emotions began to tangle around zem, and ze began wishing they hadn’t dumped her on such a close chair to zer own. It was getting difficult to see outside the chaos.

Zer eyes combed the writhing mass, searching for her death date. Ze hadn’t seen it yet, and it unsettled zem if ze could not see how long a person had left. Ze found it lingering near her left hip, and frowned. She had a good seventy years to wait.

“I have an idea,” ze replied. She gave zem an annoyed look, clearly expecting zem to elaborate. Ze didn’t, so she didn’t continue questioning zem, clearly miffed. And from the swirling images in her mind, seemingly coming to the most likely correct conclusion that the House people would inform her soon anyway. Several minutes passed, and a fleeting curiosity struck Beyond.

“Doku,” ze said, leaning forward and starling Amane out of her thoughts. Suddenly, her head and her groin were surrounded by images of a woman’s face: also Japanese, with deep brown eyes, short dark hair, and a wicked smile. The name _Kiyomi Takada_ also floated in a few places, and Beyond’s eyes widened involuntarily. It took serious gall to be the first person to report on the capture of someone you betrayed. Kiyomi Takada was a news anchor and talk show host, and her station had gotten the scoop on Dengeki’s capture before any other.

But there was also a string of green confusion around Amane’s head again, this time explicitly to do with zem. So ze decided to tip his hand. The briefing they were about to receive would most likely reveal zer powers anyway, and satisfying her curiosity was only fair. She’d satisfied zers.

“ _Kiyomi Takada._ Pretty name for a nasty woman. Did you know she did a special about you on her show?” Beyond smirked. Misa flinched, her eyes widening with realization, green confusion disappearing, quickly replaced with a pink aura of realization, thick blue ribbons of fear, and darker blue threads of distrust. All of it woven around several images of zer own disfigured face, as well as several synonyms for mind reader. Ze watched with amusement as snippets of what ze supposed were memories she didn’t want zem to access played around her, all wrapped in blue. Several of them were obviously sexual, others gory, and still others carried no obvious mark of taboo. None of them lingered long enough that ze could actually understand what was happening besides a basic idea. Ze smirked a bit, watching her squirm, but decided that pissing off a girl who could shock zem to death with her mind, (or at least exponentially increase the percentage of zer skin that was covered in burn scarring) was not the best idea, even though her power was most likely contained at the moment. Besides, upon a more long term study of her reactions, Beyond decided that zer original conclusion was a sound one. Having Misa Amane on zer side would indeed be advantageous. Not only did she have an extremely destructive and easily weaponized set of powers, but a quick (if somewhat disorganized) mind as well. The movements of her thoughts and emotions had followed strange and interesting patterns, and ze was curious to know more. So, to keep her from distrusting and despising zem too much, ze reassured her: “Don’t worry. I can’t dig deep. I only see what’s going on,” here, ze tapped zer head, “right now. And a few other things. But mostly surface thoughts. I can’t get your deep dark secrets unless you’re thinking about them at the moment.”

Amane still looked suspicious, but nodded assent. The fear in her mind was less prominent around her, blue after a moment or two submersed in dark green curiosity. Partly the emotion was directed at zem, but slowly her attention was shifting back to the puzzle of their situation.

This was when the door opened again, and another prisoner entered. This one was flanked by only one guard, and shuffled along, completely docile, head bowed, face hidden under long, black hair. Like Amane, he had a suppressor collar around his neck. A dark aura of shame clung to him, as though it were his default emotion, his natural state. A thin thread of curiosity tangled around him too, but it was much less than Beyond would expect for someone in his situation. In fact, his mind wasn’t moving very much at all, and where it was, the motions were forced and mechanical rather than natural and fluid. The name _Teru Mikami_ floated above his head in bold, plain lettering.

Beyond glanced at Misa again, savoring the contrast between her rippling, twisting thought processes and this new inmate’s. Mikami’s appearance also lent evidence to a theory that had been gathering at the back of Beyond’s mind as ze spoke to Amane: this team was being chosen because they all spoke Japanese. It might also have been so that they could blend in; Amane was Japanese born and raised, and by his name, Mikami was probably at least born there. Even Beyond counted to an extent; the Chinese half of zer heritage dominated zer facial features, meaning that ze would be at least less conspicuous than many other westerners, since travelers from China were common in Japan.

But if that’s what the administrators of this project had been going for when they chose zem, they’d miscalculated. Beyond would never be inconspicuous _anywhere_ ze went: the dark keloid scarring twisting up from the neckline of zer shirt, peaking up over zer jawline, and just touching the corner of zer mouth made sure of that. Misora had once told zem it made zem look as though ze’d just committed an act of cannibalism, and ze’d made a big show of being faux-offended, claiming that the rest of zer features clearly pointed toward a more vampiric explanation for what, in the right light, looked to be a massive bloodstain emanating from the corner of zer mouth.

Beyond looked over at Mikami again. The new arrival seemed to be intentionally avoiding looking at them, and the tendrils of apprehension that surrounded him clung close to his body, as though they themselves were afraid. Beyond tried to think of who he might be, but ze’d read a lot of supervillain casefiles over the years. Though supervillain might not be accurate; Mikami’s name showed none of the telltale flicker of someone used to an alias. A non-villain criminal, then, or a villain who’d been caught soon after he’d begun. _Or both._ Beyond smirked a bit as ze began to remember exactly who Mikami was, and how he’d ended up in the care of the House. He’d forgotten that while his power made him unnoticeable to people, it did not necessarily make him invisible to security cameras, so when he started slitting the throats of people he thought were “evil,” he was brought in within two months

Beyond was amused by the story, but annoyed that ze’d been placed on a team (ze assumed) with someone that zer brain couldn’t help classifying as an idiot. Ze knew, with the part of zer brain trained in empathy, that forgetting facial recognition software was a reasonable mistake, especially for someone who’d just been through a near death experience and gained superpowers from it, but the part of zer brain trained in logic, the scientific method, and thinking of all the possibilities screamed that Mikami would only drag zem down. At least Amane’s mistake had been one of misplaced trust; Mikami’s had been one of thoughtlessness. Or, more likely, looking at the man’s tightly bound mind, lack of imagination. Beyond frowned.

The door opened again. This time, the prisoner the guards brought with them walked without resistance, yes, but also with her head held high, a disdainful smile on her lips. She styled herself queen of the place, and why shouldn’t she? Beyond guessed that even Amane and Mikami had heard of Ms. Mary Kenwood. And even if they hadn’t, her name flickered so much that ze blinked. She probably thought of herself more as _Wedy_ than as Mary. Even Beyond, with zer nigh on compulsive penchant for skepticism, had to give some respect to the master thief that had strung the regular authorities, and later Wammy’s House, along for fifteen years.

She too wore a power suppressor collar like Amane and Mikami. Beyond smirked a bit. That was the advantage of zer completely passive powers: no one could take them away. Though it also meant that it would take more than shorting out a collar and phasing through a wall to get out of the House, which was the fantasy that ze saw playing in the back of Wedy’s mind, near her death date. Ze was honestly surprised the House had managed to hang onto her as long as they had; suppressor collars were hard to remove, but not impossible, and once the thing was off, she would be able to walk right out. Even if her cell was telereinforced, the rest of the House wasn’t, and she would have to be transported sometime.

“Do any of you have any idea what’s happening here?” Wedy asked. She surveyed the room, right eyebrow raised. She swirled with curiosity, but also extreme distrust, especially in the direction of Mikami and zemself. Beyond was privately amused, since the one person she didn’t seem to consider a threat, Amane, was the deadliest of the three. Mikami’s body count was somewhere around fifteen, Beyond’s was a solid three. Dengeki and Doku had killed over three hundred people during the year that Dengeki was active.

“He does,” Amane jerked her head towards Beyond, “won’t tell me though.” Her English was heavily accented, but decent. She had been a pop idol, it was a reasonable expectation.

Wedy’s attention whipped toward zem, green curiosity and purple distrust reaching in zer direction. She was too far away for them to physically twine around zem, but they made a damn good attempt.

“What do you know?” she asked. Her eyes (and her curiosity) flicked to zer neck, zer lack of a collar making zem conspicuous in a group of powered prisoners.

“We’re being assembled into a team,” ze answered, “the House is putting together a team of people, most likely in secret, to do a job that they can’t assign to any of their regular agents. It’s probably unsavory. Not that the House doesn’t have its own people for that, but they might all be tied up, at least the ones that speak Japanese. Or they might not have the right sets of powers. You speak Japanese, right Wedy?” Ze gave her a guileless smile to offset zer rapid fire speech. Hopefully the end result of the whole interaction would be her finding zem only _mildly_ creepy, and regarding zem as a useful source of knowledge.

“Yes? What does that have to… oh. Well, if you think they’re sending us on a mission, then at least we know one thing about it. I like to know the locations of my gigs.” She nodded to zem.

“If you don’t know what they’re doing with us, how did you end up here, anyway?” Beyond asked. Ze’d made them give zem a lot of details before agreeing to cooperate with this.

“They told me if I came along and followed orders, I’d see some fresh air,” Wedy drawled, her tongue curling around the words like an affectionate cat.

“Yeah,” Amane chimed in, “I mean it’s the Wammy’s House. How bad can they treat us? They have… They have…” here her English failed her, but Beyond saw the meaning she wanted written above her right temple.

“A code of ethics,” ze supplied.

“Yeah.” She nodded enthusiastically. Beyond laughed. The idea that Wammy’s followed any kind of morality was absurd. There’d been no code of ethics when they’d waterboarded eight-year-olds to awaken their powers. No code of ethics when those same children had been made to commit atrocities they couldn’t understand. No code of ethics when Angelika Kaminsky had danced at the end of a rope.

The only code the House followed was its mission: gain total control of powers, and of powered people. Of course, that wasn’t the official mission, but Beyond knew how the system worked. Ze’d seen the gears of Wammy’s turn from the inside. Preserving peace and protecting humanity were very nice goals, but at the House, they were secondary at best.

“If it’s so funny, then how did you get here?” Amane asked, sounding offended.

“I told them I wasn’t giving them shit until they told me what I’d be doing and what I’d get for it. They told me I was being sent on a mission, that other House inmates would be with me, and that I’d be given a couple of _lovely_ upgrades if I complied. They also told me that where I could see them, so I have a good idea which parts they were lying about.” Beyond grinned and licked zer teeth.

“Well, aren’t you special.” Wedy leaned back in her chair. Beyond could see that she wanted to cross her arms, but of course her restraints prevented that. Ze could also see her defensiveness, snugly insulating her from the threads of fear, shame and self-doubt zer better planning had caused.

Amane, on the other hand, was simply nervous, and Mikami was slightly curious, since it was clear he didn’t speak a word of English. Beyond stuck zer tongue out at Wedy, then turned to reassure Amane.

“I’m sure they won’t do anything to you, Dengeki-san,” ze told her in Japanese, “You don’t know anything they might consider sensitive information.”

“How would you know? Maybe I do.” she shot back. Ze pointed to zer eyes and raised an eyebrow.

“If you did, you’d be thinking of it right now,” ze replied, blinking slowly and pointedly at Amane. She blushed, still apparently unsettled by the idea that her thoughts weren’t private anymore. That seemed to put an end to the conversation for several minutes.

Just as Wedy was preparing herself to speak again, the curiosity swirling around her indicating that she was probably going to start a communal speculation on the nature of their mission, the blank screen lit up, and emblazoned across it was a face Beyond had hoped never to see again. Creepy black eyes nestled in soft, childlike features, all framed by bleach-white hair.

 _“River!”_ Beyond tried to growl, but ze didn’t get past _Ri_ before shock dart hit zem from somewhere on the back wall. As Beyond was busy twitching in the aftermath of having a few too many volts sent through zer body, River began to speak in fluent Japanese.

“Kenwood-san, Mikami-san, Amane-san… _Birthday-san,_ it is a pleasure to meet you all. There is one more who will join us, but let us not waste time. You may make the necessary introductions with him after the briefing. For now, I will inform you about each other. You have been assembled for a reason: an _elite_ mission. Your team is to consist of two infiltrators, a combat agent, a base operative, and a last resort.

The infiltrators are to be Mary Kenwood and Teru Mikami,” here Near paused, and the mugshots of Mikami and Wedy appeared on the screen, obscuring one of his eyes.

“Kenwood-san is able to phase through solid objects, and take others with her. She also has extensive burglary experience. Mikami-san can make himself functionally invisible to humans.

The combat agent will be Misa Amane,” Amane’s mugshot appeared, obscuring his nose, “Amane-san can create electricity and has extensive experience using that power destructively.” Beyond, out of the corner of zer eye, saw Mikami narrow his eyes at Amane. Of course, Mikami fancied himself a defeater of evil, and few would be considered more evil than an indiscriminate supervillain. Ze would have to keep an eye on those two. Near was still talking.

“Your base operative will be Beyond Birthday, he’ll be your _Backup,_ so to speak,” Beyond flinched at Near’s dig. Ze also saw Wedy raise an eyebrow at zer (admittedly ridiculous) pseudonym, though neither of the others seemed to notice. It made sense; Wedy was the only native English speaker. “He is capable of limited mind reading; as long as he can see a person’s head, he can ‘see’ their surface thoughts.” At this information, Wedy’s eyes widened and her mouth became a silent _O,_ and Mikami transferred his suspicious gaze to Beyond. “You will all be wearing contact lenses which will transmit video to Birthday-san, and you will all have earpieces, with which he can transmit to you important information that he reads.

I will inform you about the last member of your team when he arrives. For now, I will tell you your mission.

You have been chosen because, together, you have the optimal set of powers among Japanese speaking prisoners of the House. Your mission is infiltration, assassination, and retrieval.” Near stopped speaking, because the door opened again.

This prisoner was flanked by six guards, and Beyond could see absolutely nothing about them. Not a thought, not an emotion, not an image, not even their name. Because their head was hidden under a black hood. In fact, not an inch of their skin was exposed. Their hands were covered in gloves, which were buckled tightly around their wrists. Their sleeves were buckled as well, and the hood was long, covering their neck and draping down their chest. Only two of the guards were actually touching the prisoner, the rest of them were eyeing their fellows suspiciously.

As the two that were actually guarding the prisoner sat them down and began to cuff them into their seat, Beyond watched the guards that were watching those guards. All six were quite apprehensive, far more than any of the others had been, even Amane’s, though she had extremely dangerous powers. Even Beyond’s own, when they had been informed of zer mind reading abilities. Beyond was just trying to piece out what _exactly_ they had been told when _it_ happened. Something went wrong. The guard who was actually attaching the prisoner’s cuffs to the chair was no longer there. Or, he was, physically. He kept moving normally. But a moment ago, he had had a name floating above his head, and a death date floating near it. A moment ago, a thread of blue fear had wound around his hands like a snake. A moment ago, he’d been thinking, in the back of his mind, of a turkey and mozzarella sandwich that he was going to eat soon. Now there was nothing. Not a flash of color or a single letter. The man had no more mind than a corpse. Beyond screamed.

On the screen, River’s eyes widened. Panicked, he shouted in English at Beyond:

“Which of them is it, Birthday-san? Which is the one with no mind?”

“Cuffs,” Beyond gasped, and the four extra guards’ purpose became clear. They all trained their weapons on the walking corpse. But the walking corpse was faster. As four shots rang out from the four guards’ guns, nearly deafening, even with silencers, another came from the dead man. As the mindless one fell to the floor, riddled with holes, one of the four fell with him, a neat little red dot on his forehead, dripping just a single line of blood. The silence, in the aftermath, was deafening, and punctuated by one sound only: muffled laughter from beneath the hood.

“Somehow, you always manage to underestimate me. I thought the keepers of Wammy’s House might have a touch more intelligence, but it seems I was wrong,” came a young man’s voice from beneath the hood. It was quiet and polite in tone, with just a tinge of disappointment, and carried a Japanese accent that wasn’t as thick as Amane’s, but certainly wasn’t negligible. Near, on the screen, pursed his lips.

“Make sure he’s secured and remove the hood.” Near ordered. The guards complied, and left the room. The prisoner was young, Japanese, and very pretty, with big light brown eyes and a face out of a magazine. The crooked, sadistic grin marring the youthful features ruined the impression, though.

But the worst part was that Beyond had recognized his powers.

Five years ago, the House had asked Beyond’s help on a case. A series of ritualistic and gory suicides by “disreputable” and publicly despised individuals in Japan. Each was videotaped by the victim, and posted, along with a full video confession of their “sins,” by an automated program, also set up by the victim, to the same youtube account. They suspected mind control.

When Beyond had watched the videos, it had been the same as the guard: they had had no minds that ze could see. They were already dead, even as they disemboweled themselves, or hung themselves, or slit their own throats. It had been the most disturbing thing Beyond had ever seen, and ze had crushed a thirteen year old’s eyeballs with zer own hands. But at least Quarter Queen had been an ordinary corpse when ze did that, not one of these… _abominations._

The House eventually caught the culprit in secret, a boy, barely nineteen. They’d locked him up after the secret trial, and told the public that the suicides were the fault of a cult. But the idea of some kind of avenging God had already gone viral in Japan, and people still worshiped the concept. They even gave it a name.

“You’ve brought _Kira_ to work with us?” Beyond glared at Near accusingly. Amane gasped.

“Kira is real?” she asked, her face full of a mixture of wonder and horror, “I thought he was a legend.”

“Indeed,” Near gritted, switching back to Japanese, “and he is your last resort. This is Light Yagami, and he has the ability to make humans into living puppets with nothing but a touch. The process is irreversible, and anyone so affected can be considered dead. He will be your backup plan, in case Mikami-san, Kenwood-san, and Amane-san fail. That is the other reason you need Birthday-san: he is the only one able to tell if someone is under the effects of Yagami’s power.” Near’s face was grim.

“Now, back to the mission briefing…”


End file.
